


Never Stood a Chance

by jellyryans (ryankellycc)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, POV Alternating, Polyamory, Prompt Fic, doggo shifter daichi, no edit only write, no smut but definitely allusions to human sexy times, super light urban fantasy, unsuspecting humans tanaka and suga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 10,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24481981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryankellycc/pseuds/jellyryans
Summary: Being a shifter doesn't really affect Daichi's life. He isn't forced into it like werewolves on full moons, and the process is not nearly as horrific as mainstream media makes it out to be. He has a career, house, social life and, most importantly, two loving partners.Unfortunately for him, he can only go so long without shifting.Unfortunately for his partners, Daichi hasn't gotten around to saying a word about it.
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Sawamura Daichi/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Sugawara Koushi/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	1. Why are you whispering?

“Psst! Ryuu!”

Tanaka threw an arm over his eyes.

“Wake up!”

Half asleep, he weighed Suga’s urgent hissing against burying his head under his pillow. His body continued to scream for the latter even as he pushed through the sleepy haze fogging his thoughts. “Why are you whispering?”

“Just get up!” 

There was something off enough about Suga’s strangled reply that Tanaka realized he wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon. 

“I’m gettin’,” Tanaka whispered in surrender. He dragged himself from the comfort of his blanket cocoon to follow Suga out of his bedroom. In the back of his mind, he realized the sheets on the side of the bed where Daichi had fallen asleep earlier were cold. 

He was still in the process of waking up as they descended the stairs to the main level of their house, but as they approached the living room he was suddenly shocked into alertness. He grabbed Suga’s wrist to stop him. 

Suga looked over his shoulder with his brows raised in silent inquiry. 

“What the hell is going on?” He said quietly, pointing toward the living room from where they could hear quiet rustling. Adrenaline pricked under his skin. There wasn’t anything within reach that he could use as a weapon, and Suga’s hands were empty, so he moved to put himself between his partner and whatever was moving around in their house. Suga stopped him with both hands on his chest. He must’ve felt the way his heart thudded against his ribcage, because Suga’s face softened. 

“You’ll see,” he whispered with a cryptic half-smile. 

They moved lightly through the hall until they could poke their heads around the door frame. 

Tanaka’s eyes widened. 

The overhead lights weren’t on, but the ambient glow from outside was more than enough to illuminate the dog that was currently chewing on a pair of guest slippers. From what Tanaka could tell, it wasn’t foaming at the mouth or acting erratically. In fact, the dog seemed perfectly at home on their carpet. 

When he was relatively sure they weren’t in immediate danger, Tanaka squinted at the animal itself. It looked like a Shiba Inu with the fluffy, curled tail, but it was stockier, with a healthy dark brown coat. His heart was still stuttering in his chest, but his adrenaline was diluted with unexpected excitement. Neesan had never let him have a dog growing up, and Suga and Daichi had punted the pet conversation while they were in the process of buying and furnishing their house. 

For a fleeting moment, he thought the dog might’ve simply materialized as a result of his fervent desire for a pet. “Stupid,” he murmured under his breath. Suga blinked at him. “Uh,” Tanaka said, mind bouncing between the million and one questions he felt like he should ask. “Where’s Daichi?”

“I dunno,” Suga said seriously, glancing at the dog. “You guys were asleep in your room when I went to bed, and I haven’t seen him since waking up.”

“And he woulda woken one of us up if he was called into the station,” Tanaka whispered. “What d’we do?”

“First things first,” Suga said after a minute, “we have to save our guest slippers.”

“ _That’s_ what you’re worried about?!”

Suga tapped his chin, pretending to think hard about their next move. “ _Then_ I guess we should address the fact that there’s a random dog in our living room. And maybe call Daichi.”

Without taking his eyes off the dog, Tanaka huffed a quiet laugh. "Sounds like a plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BLACK LIVES MATTER.  
> BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER.  
> BLACK CHILDREN MATTER.  
> BLACK LOVE MATTERS.  
> BLACK MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS.  
> BLACK ART MATTERS.  
> BLACK DREAMS MATTER.  
> BLACK FUTURES MATTER.
> 
> White supremacy was created by white folx, and WE are responsible for dismantling it. White people are allowed to be in pain, but we need to understand our feelings, our hurt, anger, frustration, and white fragility so we no longer burden Black, Brown, African American, Indigenous, and other communities of color with our tears. If you are white, get your white friends and colleagues together to talk through your thoughts, feel your emotions, and have the hard conversations about what it means to benefit from a white supremacist system. We need to talk so we can LISTEN and HEAR. Learn about your whiteness so you can take it apart. If you are white, especially in the United States, and don't feel like you have a group, or community, or space in which you can be truly vulnerable, come to me. 
> 
> \---
> 
> Thank you for reading! I'm going to post batches of short chapters over the next few days. I mentioned in the tags, but I'm doing this as a terrifying exercise in writing, going over it once for grammatical errors, and then posting without my usual four to five rounds of edits. 
> 
> FINALLY!!!! A big thank you to [kimmi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenmagoesblep/pseuds/kenmagoesblep) for organizing events through the HQ!! Writers Discord -- I'm a lurker but super grateful to be a part of it. [Here](https://chrmdpoet.tumblr.com/post/162406220799/50-dialogue-prompts) is the prompt list we used, if you're curious.


	2. It's three in the morning.

The dog looked up when Suga pulled Tanaka into the living room. 

Suga braced himself for the worst — blood, teeth, screams of agony, and ambulance sirens — but the dog simply accepted their presence and went back to peacefully chewing on the rapidly deteriorating slipper between its front paws. 

Of all the scenarios he’d envisioned upon waking up to what sounded like an intruder rummaging through their living room sofa cushions for spare change, one where a strange dog chewed on their shit like he owned the place hadn’t occurred to him. And that was exactly the situation they were in. “Of course Daichi isn’t here,” Suga said, still speaking quietly but no longer whispering. 

“I left my phone in my room.”

“Me too. Damnit.” Suga chastised himself for not thinking to grab his phone before confronting a strange being in their house. He felt a little better that Tanaka hadn’t thought of it either, but that small bubble of relief burst with the realization that two people with questionable self-protection instincts did not, in fact, equal one safe, responsible person. 

“He seems really nice,” Tanaka said, rousing Suga from his self-inflicted damnation. 

Suga chanced taking his eyes off the dog to look at his partner and immediately wished he hadn’t. 

Tanaka was an expressive guy. When he, or someone he loved, was feeling threatened, he rolled up his sleeves, clenched his fists, and made sure everyone in the vicinity knew he was ready to fight. He laughed with his entire body when he experienced glee and perfected the specific posture that communicated his sadness. Suga respected him for that, and he was confident Daichi felt the same, but it didn’t make it any easier, in that moment, to process the overwhelming love in Tanaka’s face as he stared at the animal on the rug. “We don’t know anything about it,” he warned. 

“I know,” Tanaka whined, “but don’t you get a good feeling from him?”

“I feel good that we weren’t attacked.”

Tanaka frowned. He wasn’t unhappy, just contemplative. Suga alternated his attention between the dog and his partner until Tanaka was ready to articulate his thoughts. 

“It’s just, I’ve never had a dog or anything, but I feel like we might be missing something? I mean, you’re right, he hasn’t attacked us at all. He doesn’t even look nervous being in a new place.” He took a step toward the dog. Suga’s heart leapt into his throat, but the dog just cocked its head. He couldn’t help but notice the dog had darker brown fur where he’d expected eyebrows, which gave the dog very human expressions. “See?” 

Suga huffed with begrudging acknowledgement, which caught the dog’s attention. It hopped up on all fours and approached them with a bright expression and wagging tail. He'd deny it later, but Suga instinctively stepped behind Tanaka. 

“Good dog,” Tanaka cooed, cautiously putting his hand out. The creature walked toward them with surprising caution, and sniffed Tanaka’s hand before licking it. Tanaka’s face lit up with joy as he knelt to the dog’s level. He checked for a collar, which was absent, then started running his hands through the thick, coarse fur on the dog’s back. The dog panted with its eyes closed, looking as pleased with being petted as Tanaka was doing the petting. 

Nobody could deny the dog was cute, and Suga's heart thawed as the scene unfolded. Tanaka loved the dog at first sight, that much was obvious. If Suga hadn’t known better, he’d say the dog had fallen under the same spell. 

Suga didn’t have the same attachment to dogs as Tanaka did, but he found himself reaching out to the creature anyway. When the dog noticed, it brushed past Tanaka to nuzzle his palm. His tail continued to wag, smacking Tanaka in the face. It should’ve been gross, having a strange, wet nose against his skin, but the dog’s face was so warm, and its eyes were a deep, deep brown. They reminded him of Daichi’s eyes. Tears pricked behind Suga’s, and he wasn’t sure how deeply he wanted to read into that reaction. 

Suddenly, the dog trotted over to the front door and stared at the knob. 

“Uh,” Tanaka said. “I think he needs to go out.”

"It’s three in the morning.”

“Not sure his bladder cares…”

The dog whined. 

The way Suga saw it, they had two options. They could spend the wee hours of the morning scrubbing dog excrement off their floor and belongings, or they could figure out a way to take the dog out without risking it running off before they could get in touch with Daichi about what they should _actually_ do. 

He wasn’t sure which option he liked least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> doggo!daichi is a Shikoku dog, inspired by this beautiful baby: 


	3. We could be arrested for this.

The leash he’d cobbled together with the help of a step-by-step YouTube tutorial and three of Daichi’s ties — Suga’s idea — lasted about two minutes. 

Five minutes after they’d closed the door, the smooth silk lost the knots he had made in the fabric, and the dog was free. 

As soon as he realized he was no longer tethered, he took off in the direction of the larger of the parks near their house. 

Tanaka lurched forward, but stopped before he’d taken the first step. He should’ve known this would happen. The dog had somehow gotten into their house despite locked doors and in-tact, locked glass windows, but that didn’t mean he would stay. This exact scene had probably played out in Suga’s head already, and Daichi hadn’t answered his phone. He might’ve held himself back, but he didn’t even try to stop the tears that blurred his vision. Wiping them with the back of his sleeve only made it worse. He wasn’t ashamed of crying, especially when he was with of one of men who loved him, but he hated the tears for blocking rational thought. Instead of coming up with a solution, or comforting himself, he could only imagine the dog getting hit by a car, or taken in by a cruel person, or being put to sleep at a shelter. 

Suga put his hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” he said softly. 

“Sorry,” Tanaka sniffed.

“Apology not accepted, you silly-billy,” Suga chided. He slid his hand down and rested it on Tanaka’s shoulder blade. He leaned into the touche. They stood together until Tanaka was able to focus on Suga’s fingers rubbing comforting circles into his back and steady his breath. “Should we go to a park?” he asked, interrupting the nighttime calm. “We’re already out, and when else are we gonna have one all to ourselves?”

Tanaka wiped the last of his tears. “A’ight.”

Suga let him set both the pace and the direction, and he chose to walk briskly in the same direction of the dog. If Suga had other plans for their impromptu night jaunt, he didn’t voice them.

They made it to the larger park in record time. Working out was not a part of Suga’s routine, so he folded over himself and put his hands on his knees as soon as they stopped. Tanaka, on the other hand, Tanaka scanned the greenscape. 

Suga was still catching his breath when Tanaka’s breath hitched. _Their_ dog was sprinting to and fro across the park with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his ears perked up. Tanaka teared up again, this time in relief. He interlaced his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes against the night sky. He took in the sound of the dog’s breath, the rhythmic beating of the dog's paws against the ground, the chirping of insects that only came out at night, the early morning chill clinging to the air around them. 

“Never thought I'd be so glad to see a dog,” he heard Suga say. 

Like he was summoned, the dog loped toward them. The irregular white patches on his chest glowed under the lampposts that lined the paths traversing the park and reflected in his eyes. He’d seen some happy dogs in his life, but Tanaka couldn’t believe _any_ dog had ever been happier to run around a park at 3:30 in the morning than the one that crashed into their lives. 

Both humans knelt down to pet the dog, who rolled over in the dewy grass to expose his belly. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth. 

“Can’t believe Daichi’s missin’ this,” Tanaka said in awe. Suga was quiet enough that Tanaka tore his eyes away from the soft, vulnerable puppy belly that had been proffered so generously. He was staring down at the dog but not quite seeing him. Daichi named this state of being as Suga’s "over-thinking mode." “Suga?”

“The dog doesn’t have any tags,” Suga murmured, “and he’s not on a leash anymore.”

Tanaka took a moment to process the two bits of unwelcome information. “Could we get arrested for this?”

“I don’t think so,” Suga said. His lack of confidence made Tanaka uneasy, but Suga waved it off with a flick of his wrist. “We’d probably have to pay a citation, and that’s _just_ if we’d taken the dog into the park in the middle of the day on a weekend. Who’s gonna be out here giving out citations before the barest hint of the sparkling ass-crack of dawn?”

Considering the way their morning had gone up to that point, neither of them should’ve been surprised when a community safety officer, someone unfamiliar but who must've worked in the same department as Daichi, popped out of the dark with a disapproving scowl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cluster of chapters coming tomorrow! Thank you again!


	4. This is why we can't have nice things.

Tanaka and the dog raced back to the house. Suga lagged behind. 

He usually did, no matter who he was with. He only had to keep up with primary schoolers. Daichi and Tanaka had to keep up with adults. Suga suppressed a shudder at the thought of having to work out daily _and_ listen to adults all day, but someone had to do their jobs, and that someone had to be in relatively good shape. Tanaka used his exercise as research to spend his days working with individual clients and college sports teams to get athletes back on their feet. Daichi didn’t _have_ to maintain such a rigorous blood-pumping regimen, but, in typical Daichi fashion, he held himself to a standard leagues above his colleagues. 

Working out wasn’t mandatory for community safety officers, beautifully exemplified ten minutes earlier by the officer that had decided to wait in the bushes all night on the mere _chance_ some unsuspecting innocents wanted to bring an unleashed, unlicensed dog to the park in the earliest part of the morning, when no one else in their right minds would be out. Suga had made a mental note of the officer’s name, of course, so he could tell Daichi exactly who on his team was responsible for writing them a citation that would cost him an entire month of take-out. 

Suga chewed his bottom lip as he thought about Daichi, who hadn’t responded to their texts and calls. Last time they talked about it, Daichi wasn’t interested in dating someone else, and he would’ve told them if he _was_ going on a date. Additionally, according to his calendar, he wasn’t scheduled at the station. The dog was cute and its appearance seemed to be something straight out of a short story, but neither distraction could stop him from worrying. 

When he finally made it to the house, Tanaka and the dog had already gone inside, and he was so caught up in vivid mental images of Daichi lying dead in a ditch somewhere, that he didn’t notice the tennis ball in the entryway until he was airborne. 

The thud of his body against the wood floor was loud enough to attract the other beings in the house. He was in the middle of his favorite combined strings of profanity when he heard the click-clack of nails. Soon enough, the dog was nosing against him, finding his hands where he was rubbing his ankle, then moving up to his face. Suga was too tired to fight the tongue that lapped at his cheek. 

“Holy shit,” Tanaka said, rushing over. “You okay?”

He skipped the hemming and hawing and got straight to the point. Worried, professional sports therapist Tanaka didn’t have any patience for flowery descriptions. “My ass hurts, of course, and I think I rolled my ankle.”

Tanaka nodded and took Suga’s ankle in his hand to feel around. His touch was clinical and efficient, but it was also gentle, and inquiring, and so very _Ryuu_. Suga’s face burned. He was glad to find the dog focused intently on his ankle, following Tanaka’s every move. Mortification aside, he was enjoying himself immensely. 

However, he _didn’t_ enjoy getting up to find that he he'd rolled his ankle, and he certainly didn’t enjoy hobbling around to find the rest of the house completely torn apart. An inch of water flooded the kitchen floor. Broken crackers, wet, muddy towels, and three open containers of leftovers littered living room floor. “What happened?”

“Uh…” 

“You were in the house for five minutes!” 

The dog tried to hide behind Tanaka. He wasn’t a large animal, but he was exceptionally fluffy, which made it difficult for the dog to shield himself completely. 

“I know,” Tanaka said, “but! I hadn’t seen ‘im drink all night, so I went to get some water, and then he tried to jump up on the counter, and I accidentally hit the sprayer-thing, but he ended up liking it, and it was fun to try to get him to drink out of it. And then I thought he might be hungry, so I got some snacks and food from the fridge to see what he liked, but he ignored it, so I left it out just in case. Oh, and the tennis ball, uh… I realized I had some in the hall closet and thought it might be cool to see if the dog liked that, too?”

Suga was more impressed than horrified.

“I’ll clean it up!” Tanaka blurted. “I know you’ve gotta get going early.”

It was hard to argue with Tanaka’s earnest expression. He said as much, kissed Tanaka on the cheek, and head to his bedroom. 

Before going up the stairs, he came across the chewed guest slipper. “This is why we can’t have nice things,” he muttered, knowing full well that _this_ — being mysteriously appearing dogs — couldn’t possibly be a recurring event. 

It only occurred to him as he drifted off to sleep that he might’ve just consented to allowing the dog to stay.


	5. We need to talk about what happened last night.

He’d seen Daichi’s bare ass enough not to be shocked by it, but he’d never woken up on the couch expecting to see a dog and getting an eyeful of his missing partner sprawled face-down on the rug instead. When he yelped in surprise, Daichi didn’t even flinch.

Tanaka called to him quietly. 

No response. 

The gentle rise and fall of his upper back let Tanaka know that he was alive, at least, but that didn’t satisfy his panic response. Daichi wasn’t a heavy sleeper, even after a night of heavy drinking, and he’d never passed out naked. Or dirty? Tanaka squinted in the low light of dawn to confirm that Daichi had dried mud on his hands and feet. 

He scrambled to the end of the couch and tip-toed past all of the doors and windows, all of which were locked from their return hours earlier. Tanaka gasped. _The dog_. He strained his ears listening for the sound of paws, and the resounding silence was enough to send him up the stairs and into Suga’s room. He was very familiar with the risk involved in waking Suga up before his alarm again, but his head was spinning out of control and whatever Suga’s reaction was would be worth feeling tethered to the earth again. 

As it turned out, he only had to mention Daichi’s name for Suga to stir, and he didn’t curse or growl or throw pillows. He only reached toward the space where someone would be if they had slept in his bed and blinked awake when he realized he was alone under the covers. 

Suga wore his hair shorter than he used to, but the wild mercury tufts still had a mind of their own. They whirled across his scalp like a storm and stuck out in ways Daichi and Tanaka had deemed impossible according to the known laws of physics. Tanaka knew they were dealing with a _situation_ , but he was incapable of holding back a smile. 

“Daichi’s back?” Suga slurred, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Bastard." A moment later, Suga bolted upright. “Why don’t you sound sure?”

“Okay, fair," Tanaka said, holding his hands up both as a show of peaceful intentions and a way to protect himself. "I’m definitely sure Daichi’s here, but not too sure about anythin’ else.”

With minimal complaining, Suga rolled out of bed and followed him downstairs. 

“What the ever-loving _fuck_?” 

Suga’s eyes were wider than Tanaka had ever seen them. 

“I woke up on the couch and he was just lyin’ there.” Tanaka gestured toward Daichi’s naked back. “Like that.”

“Whuh…” Suga started, then shook his head to start again. “Where’s the dog?”

“Dunno,” Tanaka said. He tried to keep the disappointment from his voice, but he was only a man, and could only do so much. “The windows ’n’ stuff were locked though. Maybe Daichi let him out when he got home?”

Without warning, Suga stepped forward, and Tanaka watched in horror as he slapped Daichi’s ass hard enough to leave a violent red mark in the exact shape of Suga’s hand. Talking to Daichi hadn’t roused him, but Suga’s hands-on method sure did. Daichi jerked awake with an short expletive, pushing himself up in rushed, stiff movements. He groaned as he turned to them, and Tanaka covered his mouth with both hands to stifle his screech. 

Daichi’s face was covered in dried mud, just like his hands and feet. 

Suga crossed his arms over his chest, thoroughly unamused. “We need to talk about what happened last night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out I only had the energy to write and post two chapters today. Hoping for three tomorrow! 
> 
> Thanks for coming along on this adventure with me!


	6. I can explain.

Daichi wasn’t unaccustomed to being put on the spot. From his time in school to the present, he’d participated in club leadership, including his current position as the captain of the neighborhood volleyball club, and he’d lost count of the number of interviews he’d been subjected to over the years. 

He came out to his parents, grandparents, siblings, and extended family as queer, and then again as polyamorous. 

He’d been on good dates and bad dates and suprising dates and dates that ended up with him having to tell the person he was seeing that he was an actual officer of the law and was legally compelled to report potential criminal activity if he heard about it. 

The solid relationships he had with Tanaka and Suga were a testament to long hours of self-examination and hard conversations. 

However, none of his varied experiences prepared him for his current predicament.

Suga and Tanaka stared at him, the former with eyes that flickered through the entire emotional gamut so quickly Daichi couldn’t keep up and the latter with unabashed curiosity and intrigue laced with something harder to identify. Disappointment? Sadness? Daichi was pinned in place on the couch, clad only in a soggy towel that must’ve been used to clean up _his_ mess. 

Being a shifter didn’t affect Daichi’s day-to-day life. He wasn’t forced into it like werewolves, and the process wasn’t not nearly as horrific as mainstream media made it out to be. Shifting was lumped in with fantasy but it felt normal to the point of being boring. It wasn’t like he’d tried to keep it a secret; it just hadn’t occurred to him to bring it up. 

Which, looking back on it, seemed almost as absurd as the concept of a shifter would be to every single other person on the plant. 

He’d fucked up there, and he’d fucked up for allowing himself to get to the point where he couldn’t exactly control his shifting. While he wasn’t forced into it according to moon cycles or other arbitrary circumstances, he couldn’t go forever _without_ shifting. All of the late nights at the station, early morning jogs with Tanaka, and afternoon patrols along the route of Suga’s school meant little time alone. 

To make matters worse — _Amazingly_ , Daichi thought — the longer he went without shifting, the less he remembered from his time as a dog when he finally shifted back. Who knows what else he had to apologize for during his nighttime romp. 

He knew Suga was waiting for him to say something because he knew that Daichi knew exactly where the conversation needed to start, and that Tanaka desperately wanted to say however many tens of things were on the tip of his tongue but would wait because he learned he communicated more effectively when he took the time to prioritize his thoughts, feelings, and impulse.

Daichi loved them both.

“I can explain,” he said. 

Suga blinked in disbelief. “I know you _can_ , but we’ve been sitting in silence for the last ten minutes, which makes me think that you don’t _want_ to.”

“It’s not that,” Daichi said, looking down at his hands. They were filthy, like he’d been digging around in the mud. He probably had. 

“Did you see a dog when you came in?” 

Daichi caught the worry that flashed in Suga’s eyes when Tanaka asked. “No,” he said. 

“Oh.” Tanaka’s face fell so dramatically Daichi expected it to shatter against the floor. 

His heart squeezed. “I didn’t see the dog because I was the dog. I am a dog.”

Suga and Tanaka furrowed their brows in confusion.

“That’s not what I — I’m not explaining this well,” Daichi stuttered. “I can shift between dog and human forms. Last night, was,” he paused to swallow dryly, “embarrassing.”

"Holy shit," Tanaka said in awe. "Does that mean you're our built-in dog?!"

Suga's reaction was less wordy, and involved multiple hits to his solar plexus.


	7. I'm not going anywhere.

Suga called out of work as soon as the hour was reasonable enough to do so. 

Waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of an intruder, finding a dog instead, walking to a park, getting a citation, having their house trashed, and sustaining a very mild ankle injury would’ve been manageable. He’d be exhausted at the end of the day, but that wouldn’t have been so bad. Tanaka would’ve cooked while he scrolled on his phone, and then they would’ve curled up in front of the TV until Daichi got home. 

All of those things combined with finding out that one of his _partners_ was an _actual dog_ , made Suga a very, very confused, very distracted boy. Facing an army of children wasn’t going to happen. He barely knew what to say one of the two people he loved most. 

He lazily swirled a tea bag in his mug, inhaling the bitter, grassy steam and praying to whatever god governed over humans and their shifting counterparts that caffeine would help direct his focus. 

Tanaka was already slurping his own drink, seated in the spot on the couch that Daichi had just vacated. They could only talk seriously for so long when one of them was naked and streaked with dirt. Suga chanced a look, and was glad to find that he was staring off into space. He studied Tanaka’s expression, hoping to find guidance in the way he felt his feelings as they happened, and let them dance across his face. 

He’d accepted Daichi’s news immediately. Daichi was home safe, questions were asked and answered truthfully, and they had a dog. It was simple. Suga was jealous. 

“I can hear ya thinkin’ from over here,” Tanaka said playfully. He patted the unoccupied cushion next to him and waggled his eyebrows. 

Suga accepted the invitation with a snort. “And you’re not?”

“I mean, yeah, but not like you. It’s weird as hell,” he admitted, “but he’s okay. We’re okay. ’S all we can ask for.”

“ _Are_ we okay?” Suga asked, eyes downcast. “That’s huge thing to keep secret.”

Tanaka laughed. “Only you’d care more about him keepin’ something to himself than him bein’ a dog person.”

“You don’t think he lied?”

“Nah,” Tanaka said easily. “We’re allowed to have our own stuff.” He poked Suga in the ribs, where he was most ticklish, just hard enough to elicit a sharp giggle. “I think you’re the one who told me that.”

Suga picked at a string on the cuff of his shirt sleeve, his smile lingering. “Maybe.”

“I can’t tell you what to think, but it’s _Daichi_. I’m gonna trust that he wouldn’t lie to us on purpose, or without a damn good reason.”

“You’re right,” Suga mumbled. 

“Huh?” Tanaka said, putting a hand to his ear. “Come again?”

“Such a funny guy!”

Tanaka flexed one of his arms proudly. “I’m super funny!”

“Why are you flexing your arm?” Suga asked between fits of giggles. 

“Okay, but why _wouldn’t_ I be flexing?”

Suga didn’t know how long Daichi watched them hit each other with the decorative couch pillows, but at some point he cleared his throat and put an abrupt end to their fight. They looked up to find him leaning against the door frame with dewy skin, a clean, maroon Henly, and a shy smile. He bit his lip in an attempt to stymie his own. “What’re _you_ smiling about?”

“Just happy,” Daichi said. “For some reason I thought I’d come back and you'd be gone.”

Tanaka leaned back into the couch with a pout. “Fat lot of faith you’ve got in us. I know _I’m_ not going anywhere.”

“Seriously Daichi,” Suga said. “You’ve got another thing comin’ if you think changing into a dog is all it takes to get rid of me.”

“That’s such a — “ Daichi’s stomach cut him off with a long, low growl. 

Without missing a beat, Suga told him that they’d have to run to the store for dog food, making Tanaka howl with laughter and sending Daichi fleeing from the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! And subscribing! I am a lucky duck!!!! More tomorrow, 2-3 chapters, depending on my writin' time....


	8. It's not that complicated.

“It’s really not that complicated.”

Tanaka looked up at Suga from where he sat on the floor with Daichi nestled between his legs. They stared at him with the same skeptical expression, which was an impressive feat considering Daichi was in his dog form and Tanaka was still very human.

More noticeable than their matching expressions was the tangle of bright orange -- visibility was key, the clerk said in support of the neon reflectors sewed on to the straps -- harness he’d bought the day before. One loop hung around Daichi’s neck, and Tanaka was trying to get his hand out from where he’d gotten it stuck in another loop. 

Daichi boofed unhappily. He was forced to move along with Tanaka as he maneuvered his hand and pulled on the harness. When Tanaka finally extricated his hand, he pulled the offending harness off Daichi and let it fall. He glared at it with unconcealed disdain. 

Suga tried to suppress a giggle, and failed. 

“The hell it’s not,” Tanaka huffed. He ran his hands through the thick fur on Daichi’s back. Whether it was to calm himself or comfort an impatient-for-walkies Daichi, Suga couldn’t tell. “I tried the big loop around his neck, but then couldn’t buckle it around his shoulders. When I switched it up, I couldn’t get his front legs through. Then I thought maybe his two front legs went through the two front loops and it kind of, I dunno, buckled around his back, but that didn’t work either. ‘Thing’s impossible. Do we really need it? ‘S not like Daichi’s gonna run off or bite someone.”

Daichi leaned back into Tanaka and whined in agreement. 

“You do remember what happened that night, right?”

“That was one time!” Tanaka groaned. “What’re the chances someone’s gonna be patrolling the park after midnight? Again,” he added quickly. 

“I dunno,” Suga admitted. Daichi assured them that they normally didn’t do usual patrols between midnight and five, but his colleague had been a little too eager to slap them with a fine. They did okay, money-wise, between the three of them, but they weren’t rolling in mountains of cash. “Do you guys really want to risk more take-out nights?” 

Tanaka shrugged. He actually _liked_ cooking, so he probably didn’t care one way or another. Suga had expected that, and looked to Daichi. Abject horror was a disturbing expression on a dog, but the warning had its desired effect. The one who suffered most when they couldn’t take-out was the guy who loved a very specific ramen place near their house and ate more than Suga and Tanaka put together. 

Daichi nosed at the orange monstronsity lying limply at his feet. 

“That’s what I thought.”

“You’re not playin’ fair, Koushi.” 

“Fair or not,” Suga said in his best teacher voice, “Those are the facts.”

With a defeated sigh, Tanaka picked the harness off the linoleum tile and held it out in front of him and Daichi like it was a piece of rotten fish. 

Suga rolled his eyes and kneeled to join them on the floor. He kissed the top of Daichi’s head before grabbing the tangled orange mess of straps and buckles. “Lemme show you how it’s done.”

Ten minutes later, Suga made Tanaka call the pet supply store to ask about their return policy.


	9. I should've told you a long time ago.

“I should’ve told you a long time ago.”

“Huh?”

“I _said_ ,” Daichi panted, “I should’ve told you a long time ago.”

Tanaka kept his eyes on the sidewalk, looking ahead. “I _meant_ about the thing you shoulda told me.”

“Ah.”

The only sound other than their labored breathing was the rhythmic beating of their trainers on concrete. This early in the morning, the neighborhood was just on the cusp of waking. Tanaka wasn’t an early riser by nature but found that waking up to get his run out of the way meant more time to devote to more interesting things, like hitting up their local market for sales and spending time with his partners. 

Daichi joined him occasionally, and he wondered if he’d still want to run with him when he got his running out of the way as a dog, late at night. When Daichi asked if he could join him that morning, Tanaka almost vibrated out of his skin. 

He didn’t hate being alone in the pristine quiet of the morning, but the experience was infinitely better with someone else. 

Suga, on the other hand, was a lost cause. He’d never forget the face Suga made when he asked if he wanted to get up with the sun to jog, early in their relationship. Thinking about Suga’s reaction still made him break out in a cold sweat. 

“So…” Tanaka trailed off. “You gonna tell me, or did you just wanna talk about wanting to talk?” 

“Funny guy,” Daichi said between heavy breaths. “I should’ve told you I was a shifter. Wasn’t fair for you to find out like that, after we’d bought a _house_ together.”

Tanaka didn’t realize he’d slowed down until he saw Daichi’s back. He picked up his pace until they were side by side again. “You’re kiddin’, right?”

Daichi turned his head. They locked eyes for a moment. “No? It was pretty selfish for me to get involved with you and Koushi emotionally without you knowing. It’s like…” Daichi paused to consider his next words. “It’s like I didn’t give you and Suga the chance to opt out.”

This time, Tanaka stopped on purpose. He grabbed Daichi’s wrist to stop him, too. “Dude, where’s this ‘opt out’ crap coming from?”

Daichi averted his eyes. His face was flushed with exertion and his skin was coated with a thin sheen of sweat. He must’ve gotten his exercise shirt from Tanaka’s gym hamper, which was relegated to a closed room in the basement, because it already stunk, but Tanaka was struck by how handsome Daichi looked, just as he was. Offensive body odor, questionable clothing habits, and all. 

“Kuroo was rambling about his new relationship on the phone the other day. Apparently, they both made a point to lay all of their shit on the table at the very beginning. Kinda made me feel like I was lying to you.”

“Daichi,” Tanaka said seriously, grabbing both of his hands. “Firstly, Kuroo is not in _our_ relationship,” Tanaka said. “What works for him might not work for the next guy. Secondly, we can’t be expected to just… just barf our life story up by the third date. ’S not reasonable, man.”

Daichi squeezed his hands. “But you have to admit that it was pretty mature.”

“For _him_ ,” Tanaka conceded, “but there’s no, like, blanket rule to relationships. C’mon, you’ve talked to Suga and me enough to know all of this shit.”

“Wasn’t it a dick move to hide it from you guys?” 

Tanaka hummed. “That night you shifted the first time, Suga said somethin’ about you lying to us, but he snapped out of it pretty quickly. He was thinking too hard and forgetting that, no matter what, it was _you_. If you didn’t tell us something, it wasn’t because you were trying to hurt us. We trust you just like you trust us.”

“You’re a real sap.” 

“Damn straight. And besides, telling us you could turn into a _dog_ would’ve been a fucking intense icebreaker. Suga might’ve actually walked out.” 

“It sounds crazy, but I forgot that Suga isn’t really a dog person.”

“He’s warming up to you though,” Tanaka said. 

“Comforting.” Daichi said it sarcastically, but when Tanaka leaned forward to kiss his cheek, he met him halfway. 

“To be honest, I actually thought we’d hit the jackpot that night. We already had an awesome partner, so it was kinda like we suddenly got an awesome dog, too.”

“I almost hate to ask,” Daichi said with a grimace, “But do you like me more _because_ I’m a shifter?”

Tanaka shook his head with a laugh. “Even if that made sense, I’d still have the same answer. Being a shifter is part of who you are, and I love _you_. But… It doesn’t hurt that when you’re a dog you’re super adorable and soft and fluffy and--”

“You’re the worst.”

“You might wanna try lettin’ go of my hand next time you say somethin’ like that. Maybe I’d actually believe you.”

“Maybe we should actually _run_ on our run,” Daichi mumbled. 

“You got it, pup!”

“What the… Hey!”

Tanaka howled with glee as he took off, but Daichi was hot on his heels.


	10. Come here.

Daichi anticipated the click of the front door before it opened and he knew Suga was on the other side without having to look. 

His partners were convinced he had sensitive canine hearing and a heightened sense of smell, but the truth was that both Suga and Tanaka were creatures of habit. It was a very human thing; they all had their schedules, habits, and routines, and stuck to them without noticing. Daichi didn’t have the heart to tell them that shifters didn’t retain attributes of their animal form while human. 

He also enjoyed screwing with them, when the occasion called for it.

He opened his mouth to do just that, but a chill ran down his spine, giving him pause. The door hadn’t closed. Daichi called down the hall, toward the vestibule. 

“Suga?” 

There was no response. 

Suga’s silences were usually scarier than his fists. 

Daichi moved without thinking. 

When he reached the end of the hall and turned, he saw Suga sitting on the shoe storage bench with his head in his hands. He hadn’t even taken off his shoulder bag. The door hung open.

“Suga?” He asked again, quieter this time. 

For what appeared to be the first time, Suga acknowledged his presence. “Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. The gesture didn’t help. His voice was scratchy, like he’d been talking for too long, or crying. “Sup?”

His weak smile set Daichi’s teeth on edge. “What’s wrong?”

Suga seemed surprised by the question. He blinked down at himself like he hadn’t realized how sad he looked. Quickly, he got up to divest himself of his work accoutrements. “Nothing really,” he lied. 

Something pinged in Daichi’s memory. “Parent-teacher conferences,” he said flatly. 

“Yep,” Suga replied. “And they were a real doozy this year.”

“Come here.”

Suga didn’t need to be told twice. He wrapped his arms around Daichi’s waist and nuzzled into the crook of his neck. 

Every muscle in Daichi’s body relaxed. One of his partners was safe in his arms. Safe from crappy parents, under-funded schools, and unrealistic expectations. He squeezed Suga a little tighter. 

“Hey, Daichi?” 

Of course, with Suga, his relaxation didn’t last for long. 

“Hm?”

“Could you shift?”

Daichi sighed. He wanted to say something along the lines of _You and Tanaka_ do _like more when I’m a dog_ , but the image of Suga hunched over on himself in their entryway made him file the comment away. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll meet you in your bed.”

Tanaka returned from his last client session to a quiet house. He dropped his bags as quietly as he could, tip-toed to the bedrooms with his phone in hand. He found his partners and directed the lense at the Suga-shaped lump curled around a ball of dark brown fur. After changing the background on his screen, he joined them in the bed, uncaring of the fact that the three of them barely fit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for tonight! I updated the total chapter count because I *cannot* count. More tomorrow, then finished the day after?
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and leaving kudos and subscribing! This has been a reeeeeally interesting adventure for me, writing and posting without editing for more than typos.


	11. You make me want things I can't have.

“Ho-lee shit,” Suga said, peering into the open cardboard box on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”

After they’d returned the reflective harness, Daichi volunteered to pick one out. It made sense at the time. He had obviously screwed up the first time, and he was a big enough man to admit it. It made sense! He’d never shopped for a dog before, let alone for a person who was _also_ a dog. Thinking about it for too long still made his head hurt. The point was that Daichi would be the one wearing it, so he should be the one to pick out a new one. 

“I told you I ordered a harness last week,” Daichi said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise.”

Suga barked an incredulous laugh. “Of course. The _dog_ harness you ordered!”

“Yeah?” Daichi said, scratching the back of his head with a blank look.

“ _This_ ,” Suga said, holding the harness up by one of its shiny, black leather straps, “is your dog harness. The harness you picked out online, from a pet supply site?”

He watched Daichi closely as he looked to Tanaka for help. Tanaka didn’t notice his partner’s silent plea. He was hypnotized by the shiny buckles and silver-plated O-rings like a snake mesmerized by the instrument designed to charm it. His hazel eyes were blown wide, and a violent red blush tinged the tips of his ears. Suga couldn’t blame him, but he wasn’t done with Daichi.

“Ryuu’s not gonna help you,” Suga warned. “Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me you got me this,” he shook the harness, the metal bits clinking together like a wind chime, “On a pet store website?”

Daichi bit his bottom lip. “The website said it was for puppies.”

The shy expression, combined with the leather harness in his hand, made it very difficult for Suga to hold his ground. His mind attempted to wander, to imagine what it might be like to browse this ‘pet supply store’ for a matching leash, but if he stood up to aggressive parents on an almost daily basis, then he could stand up to his exceptionally hot boyfriend who might or might not be fucking with them. If this was all an elaborate and perfectly-acted ruse, he'd be be impressed. He might even make Daichi put it on as punishment. Or would it be a reward? 

“Puppies,” Suga repeated, choosing not to verbalize his machinations regarding a certain hypothetical punishment and reward system. “Did it also say something about ‘puppy play’?

“Maybe.” Realization dawned on Daichi’s face, followed closely by horror. He dug around in the box for the receipt and scanned the print until his eyes fixed on what Suga assumed was a bit of information about the company. “Oh my god.”

Suga held the harness in the air with both hands in front of Daichi so he could get the full, glorious mental picture. Daichi reached for it, but Suga was quicker, hiding it behind his back. “You’re seriously telling me you did a search for leather harnesses and didn’t realize what you were buying? _Really?_ ”

Daichi looked mortified enough to satisfy Suga’s curiosity that he’d legitimately purchased it by accident. “I’ve never bought a _dog_ harness before! I don’t know, I’m also human, and the people on the website were human…”

“I don’t even know what to say,” Suga said between fits of giggling, unable to hold himself back any longer. 

Tanaka swallowed, redirecting their attention. “Are we,” he coughed to clear his throat, but his voice was still raspy, “Keeping it?”

“Definitely.”

“No!”

Suga snapped his head toward Daichi. “You absolutely _cannot_ return this!"

“I’m returning it,” Daichi said, finally wrestling it from Suga’s grip. 

“Ryuu, he's making me want things I can’t have,” Suga whined. He curled into Tanaka to nuzzle into his chest. 

Suga almost purred when Tanaka wrapped his arms around him and hugged him closer. He smiled into his shirt when Tanaka said, “Daichi, ya really can’t bring that, that _thing_ , in here and expect us to just forget.”

“I can and I will,” Daichi said matter-of-factly. “And I expect you guys to respect the decisions I make about my own damn body.”

“Too reasonable for your own good,” Tanaka mumbled into Suga’s hair, kissing him on the top of the head. 

Suga didn’t dignify either of them with a response. 

He did, however, find the box at the bottom of Daichi’s closet a week later when Daichi asked him to dig around for one of his spare uniform shirts. He didn’t unfold the flaps to look inside, but they seem worn, like someone had been opening and closing it regularly. 

Suga found the shirt and brought it over to the station, all with a shit-eating grin.


	12. Love is overrated.

Love is overrated, Daichi thought.

He didn’t clench his jaw, because it would make his expression seem threatening, but he was considering it. The woman who had been petting him had kneeled down in front of him, and was now scrunching his face with both of her hands. 

“He’s so cute!” She said happily, lightly pulling on the skin around his cheeks. “What’s his name?”

Tanaka’s face went pale. A monumental feat, considering he’d been blushing violently since she’d smiled at them a few minutes prior. “Uh… Ken?”

Suga’s going to love that one, Daichi thought to himself. He huffed as best he could as a dog, which made the woman laugh. “You’re not sure?” 

“We just found him,” Tanaka said quickly. 

She seemed to accept Tanaka’s improvisation, and continued her ministrations, moving down rub the fur around Daichi’s neck, where his collar — bought at an actual pet supply store — hung loosely around his neck. It felt good enough that Daichi leaned into her touch instinctively. He regretted his weakness immediately, as she squealed in delight right into his sensitive ears. 

“Ken-dog,” she sang. “Ken-dog, you’re such a good boy!”

“ _Ken_ is real good,” Tanaka said, eyeing Daichi meaningfully. “We only have ‘im on a leash because we’ve gotten in trouble before. Otherwise we’d just be able to walk around, no problem.”

She hummed, then asked if he was a kind of Shiba Inu. Tanaka’s entire face lit up. 

Daichi was glad he could only think about rolling his eyes. They’d decided to go to a park in a different neighborhood during the day to see if Daichi could get his shifting in at some time other than the wee hours of the morning and feel comfortable doing it. He had been, right up until they entered the park. One step inside and they were bombarded with dog lovers cooing over Daichi’s form. Daichi could do without it, but Tanaka glowed with the attention.

Tanaka deserved every bit of attention he got, and more, but Daichi wished it didn’t have to be at his expense. 

“Close! He’s a Shikoku dog,” Tanaka chirped. “Originally from the island. I’ve been readin’ about them a lot lately because I’d never heard of them before Dai-, er, _Ken_ , and they’re really cool. He’s one of six known Japanese dog breeds, and Matagi used them to hunt ‘cuz they’re cautious and loyal, but also tough. Pretty much the perfect dog, if you ask me.”

Unfortunately, the woman tuned Tanaka out. She cooed to Daichi quietly while Tanaka gushed about what he’d learned over the past couple of weeks. Daichi hadn’t even known what breed he was, assuming he just came out the way he did because he was an average-size Japanese guy, until Suga and Tanaka had texted him with their research while he struggled through an overnight shift at the station. He was biased, of course, but he thought Tanaka’s enthusiasm was charming, and something ugly stirred in the back of his mind as he watched Tanaka get ignored. 

He got up, out of the woman’s reach, and sat on the other side of Tanaka to paw at his legs. 

Daichi’s reaction made the woman pout, and she raised herself from ground to thank Tanaka for letting her pet his dog before she walked off. 

Tanaka slumped with disappointment, so Daichi kept pawing until he smiled and dropped to his knees himself to scratch behind Daichi’s ears, the exact way he liked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you look up Daichi's breed, it also comes up as "Shikoku ken" in Japanese for "Shikoku dog" so I tried to be funny, or something. 
> 
> I also want to say, for the record, that girls ignoring Tanaka in canon kills me and I'm still so full of emotion that he gets the One Girl in the end <3
> 
> Final chapters tomorrow, finally! Thanks for reading, thanks for subscribing, thanks for saying nice things. I'm so grateful, and I hope you are all taking good care.


	13. What are you thinking about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a mention of spaying/neutering dogs at the end.

“What are you thinking about?”

Suga blinked. “Huh?”

“You’ve been out of it all night,” Tanaka said. He gestured at Suga’s untouched mountain of spaghetti napolitan with a pout. “Barely touched your food.”

“Oh,” Suga said, casting a sheepish glance their empty plates. 

“I even cut up a chili for yours,” Tanaka mumbled unhappily. Sure enough, there was a small bowl with thinly diced red chili next to his plate

Daichi leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. The maneuver was meant to lend him an imposing air, but Suga knew him well enough to know he was just stretching to accommodate the extra helpings he’d undoubtedly heaped on his plate when they served themselves. “It’s cold now,” he said, when Suga picked up his fork. 

“Oh.” Suga had to fight the urge to slap himself for not having anything else to say. “I’m sorry, Ryuu.”

“’S okay,” Tanaka said, working through his obvious disappointment until he came to a solution, which involved reaching across the table to grab Suga’s plate. “Lemme heat it up.”

“Thanks, Ryuu,” Suga said. 

Tanaka’s smile was sweeter than the most decadent dessert. “Cool. And while that’s goin’, you can tell us what’s going on.”

Suga exhaled sharply. “Were you just being nice to bully me into talking?”

“Nah,” Tanaka said. “I’m bein’ nice because it’s the right thing to do, and I want you to talk to us about what’s on your mind ‘cuz I love you.”

“We both do,” Daichi added. 

“It’s not like it’s that serious or anything,” Suga said, suddenly aware of the sober atmosphere around their kitchen table. “Sorry for making you worry.”

Daichi shook his head. “We’ve been over this; don’t apologize for thinking. Otherwise, I might _think_ about hitting you.”

This made Suga laugh, effectively cutting the tension. “You wouldn’t hit me.”

“No, you hit me enough for all three of us.”

“It’s my love language,” Suga said. “I’m a physical guy.”

“Uh huh,” Daichi said, letting himself smile. 

Tanaka came back with his plate, perfect whirls of fragrant steam curling and dissipating into the air, and Suga felt his appetite roar to life. He almost missed Tanaka put another small helping on Daichi’s plate, and Daichi’s small bow of gratitude.

The spaghetti napolitan was perfect, and Suga made sure to say as much after he’d shoved a couple forkfuls of pasta, peppers, and sausage. “I was thinking about how we were gonna handle the appearance of a part-time dog with our neighbors. The nosy couple down the street have already asked me what we do with _Ken_ while we’re all at work.”

“Ah, yeah. Might be awkward if someone thinks we’re mistreating a dog,” Tanaka admitted. 

“Right? Which then got me thinking about your collar —“

Daichi groaned. “Oh my god, not again.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter!” Suga said, indelicately slurping a noodle from his plate. “It got me thinking your collar _because_ we’ll have to get you tags. Earlier, I looked up the city requirements, and we’d have to provide a bunch of certificates from a vet saying that you’ve got all your vaccines and such, which means we’d have to take _Ken_ to the vet. That might be a problem,” he looked at Daichi, “Because we don’t know what the vet’ll find, if they’ll just think they’re looking at a dog or if they’ll notice that you have… I don’t know, an extra heart or human bladder, or something.”

“You might have a point,” Daichi said cautiously.

“And then,” Suga continued, “the vet is probably going to ask us to _fix_ him.”

Tanaka burst into laughter so quickly he choked on his own spit and sent himself in a loud coughing fit.

“I think that’s enough,” Daichi said. He pushed his chair back with enough force to shake the table. 

“No, wait,” Suga shouted after him. “This is serious! What if you meet a cute lady dog and lose control?”

“SHUT! UP!” 

At this point, Tanaka was bent over with tears in his eyes, howling loud enough that Suga was sure they’d get a noise complaint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spaghetti napolitan, the dish, is also called ketchup spaghetti.


	14. It was you the whole time.

For the fifth time in the last month, when Tanaka went to grab a running shirt, he was left staring into the bottom of his plastic basket. It was early enough that he didn’t mind going out in a dirty shirt, like Daichi sometimes did, but his dirty-clothes basket was only a quarter full with shorts and leggings, and not a shirt to be seen. He blinked at the empty bins. 

The first time, neither basket had been empty, but it took him a few minutes of rummaging in the clean-clothes basket to find a shirt. He brushed it off as a coincidence because some weeks required more shorts and leggings than other weeks. He’d just have to wait for this laundry ritual and clothing habits to reach equilibrium again. 

The second time, he realized while loading his laundry into the washer that his normal one-load pile looked scant. Weird but, again, he’d just have to wait to reach perfect laundry equilibrium again. 

The third time was a repeat of the first, and Tanaka was annoyed enough to ask Suga and Daichi what the heck they were doing with his running shirts. Their blank looks were genuine enough, and a casual search of their laundry (and closets) revealed nothing. 

The fourth time was the moment he found himself doing two loads of running and exercise laundry in a week. He used to be able to do one that would get him through the weekend, until he had to do his other clothing and whatever house linens Daichi wanted to throw into his pile. “So we don’t have to wipe our mouths with dirty napkins like animals,” he said. Tanaka huffed a laugh at the irony of his reproval and made a mental note to say something the next time Daichi was breathing down his neck about his table manners. 

As of that morning, however, the situation was now considered critical. Running in cotton shirts would destroy them as regular wear, and he wasn’t about to sacrifice his carefully curated collection of graphic tees. He had a problem. 

Tanaka retraced his steps, taking care to avoid the creaky spots. Naturally, his suspicion pointed toward Suga. He was the most inclined to start shit _and_ the most dedicated to covering his tracks. Suga’s mind was always going in a way that Tanaka (and Daichi) both admired and feared. 

He had to pass Daichi’s room to get to Suga’s, and Daichi had gone to bed later than them, so he poked his head through the door to make sure Daichi had actually made it to bed instead of falling asleep on the couch surrounded by paperwork. 

There was a pile of blankets on Daichi’s bed, but Tanaka paused to scrutinize the amorphous, potentially human lump. Suga slept with the blankets covering his head. Daichi didn’t. He always had at a least one limb poking out from under the covers. They didn’t know whether it was a shifter thing in general or a Daichi thing specifically, but the guy was a furnace. 

Pulling back the covers revealed nothing but sheets, pillows, and Daichi’s boring black comforter. Tanaka swallowed the lump in his throat and moved quickly to his room to grab his phone.

He thought about Daichi getting an emergency call from the station, about him shifting because something had changed and he couldn’t control it, and about waking Suga up just to tell him that Daichi was missing _again_ , but his thoughts came to a screeching halt when the corner of bright green moisture-wicking fabric sticking out from under his bed. Tentatively, he lowered himself to his belly. 

All, or a least a large part, of the exercise clothing he’d been looking for was shoved under his bed. 

Before formulating any thoughts as to how his clothing might’ve migrated without his knowledge, a dog snout poked out from what Tanaka suddenly recognized as a _nest_. 

“It was you this whole time!” 

He clapped a hand over his mouth, but the accidental decibel level of his outburst woke Daichi up immediately. In his dog form, it was very easy for him to wiggle further back into the stolen shirts.


	15. Never stood a chance.

Daichi didn’t have any aspirations of moving up in the police force. He became a community safety officer to _stay_ in his community and to keep them safe. Before he met Suga, and then Tanaka, he thought his job would mostly consist of ticketing visitor’s cars and maybe, on occasion, escorting a drunk neighbor home when they got too rowdy to be in public. 

More and more, however, he found that his job meant protecting the community from his _partners_. The amount of grudges Suga racked up across the neighborhood, from property line disputes to accusations of poisoned fertilizer, and the number of people who had filed complaints against Tanaka for wanting to fight them for no apparent reason made his head spin on a daily basis. 

Tanaka and Suga were harmless, and their physical encounters usually stopped at a passive aggressive remark or a threat trailing off into thin air after the other party walked away. They knew the neighborhood, and the neighborhood knew them. 

Visitors, however, did not. 

On the way back from a Saturday evening walk with Daichi in his dog form, Tanaka begged to stop for an ice cream bar. They were further from home than usual, having decided to explore a different dog-friendly park, so Suga found a market nearby. Daichi gave them the go-ahead, one lick to the hand, to leave him outside while they ran in for dessert. 

He didn’t have anything else to do, so Daichi followed their movements through the large glass windows. He couldn’t smile, but he puffed his chest out and wagged his tail as he watched them. Like always, Tanaka went right for his usual, and Suga spent ten minutes weighing the selection until deciding on his usual. While Suga was stroking his chin and staring intently into the glass case, a group of people Daichi didn’t recognize walked through the door. He watched in horror as one of them looked Suga up and down before pushing him aside to get to the case. 

Not even Daichi’s sensitive ears could pick up what they were saying, but he knew from Suga’s face that he said something combative. In an instant, Tanaka was between them. He shoved the person who pushed Suga, and who didn’t look like they were the type to back down. 

Daichi was up on all fours and headed toward the doors, consequences be damned, but the group the person walked in with talked the person down enough that they settled on slamming the freezer case door instead of Tanaka’s face. Rage welled up in his throat to the point where he was growling and baring his teeth, but he didn’t stop until Tanaka and Suga were safely at his side. 

“The nerve of that guy,” Suga fumed. His face was so red that Daichi wondered if it would melt Suga’s ice cream. “Just fucking pushing me out the way like I’m some… some piece of _furniture_!”

Tanaka struck the palm of his hand with the knuckles of the other. “He’s real lucky his friends had better sense than him.”

Just then, the group came out of the market with their purchases. Daichi didn’t think twice. He ran straight toward them. They were shocked by the appearance of a dog, so they were still frozen in place when Daichi leaped between them, grabbing the plastic of their bag with his teeth and putting his entire weight and forward momentum into ripping the bag. 

Their groceries fell to the ground, and Daichi slobbered over as many as he could before they regained control of their senses and started to shout. 

He bounded back to Tanaka and Suga with a bark. Suga was laughing with wide eyes, which grew even wider as Tanaka said “Oh shit!” and threw Suga over his shoulder fireman-style to run. Daichi could outrun Tanaka in dog form, but he was slowed by Suga’s weight. He slowed his pace in turn to maintain his position between the two shouting groups. 

Eventually, the group stopped following them, and they stopped running. 

Tanaka set Suga down gingerly, and then fell to his knees with his arms outstretched. “Daichi, that was awesome!”

Daichi set his paws on Tanaka’s shoulders and licked his face until Suga joined them. He kneeled behind Daichi and reached his arms until he grabbed Tanaka’s arms, trapping Daichi between them.

“Those jerks never stood a chance,” Suga said into the ruff of fur on the back of Daichi’s neck. “What would your cop buddies say to that, huh?”

He yipped happily, trying to communicate that he’d rip a thousand plastic bags from a thousand different hands, that when it came to his happy, giggling, _safe_ partners, the world didn’t stand a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is grammar? What is edit?!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this little ride! Thanks so much for reading and dealing with me getting this unedited stuff out of my system while trying something new. 
> 
> I also had an idea about Suga as the dog in a different set up entirely because, you Know. Brains have no respects for WIPs.
> 
> Thank you again!


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